to meet the deadlines mandated in the statutes and that is causing the delays experienced in the
process.
Mr. Andrews said that he had attempted to collect data on how other states deal with the
adoption of children in state custody but that the data does not seem to be already compiled by
any organization. He did, however, have information on several states. He said that Kansas
recently implemented a managed care approach contracting with Lutheran Social Services to
place children. Kansas pays a flat rate of $13,556 for placement of a child. He said that Kansas
also has standards requiring placement of 70 percent of the children within six months of referral,
finalizing 90 percent of placements within a year, getting a 90 percent satisfaction rate from the
families, placing 65 percent of the sibling groups together with the same family, and having 90
percent of children moving to foster families no more than twice while awaiting adoption. He
noted that this standard is much higher than what the state was accomplishing previously. Mr.
Andrews said this is the only state that has this system based on a capitated rate. He noted that
Alberta, Canada is planning to model Kansas' plan soon. He explained that in some states
adoption of children in custody is county oriented while in others it is state oriented and said that
Philadelphia has had a managed care plan for five years. Hamilton County, Ohio is beginning a
process to involve managed care principles. He added that Michigan and Ohio make payments at
different points along the adoption process.
ii. Ongoing counseling services for families who adopt DCFS children. Rep. Stephens introduced the issue of ongoing counseling services for families who adopt DCFS children
and said that while H.B. 109 passed, the funding mechanism was removed. She distributed draft
legislation that would mandate the division to provide intensive training and ongoing support to
potential adoptive parents, as needed until the child reaches age 21 years. She explained that in
Utah between 1993 and 1996 there were 623 placed for adoption and of those, 248 had a
placement change. She noted that these children often have difficult problems to deal with and
families give up on the adoption and return the children to the state. She felt that parents and
children need help as they make the adjustments needed to develop a family.
MOTION: Sen. Tanner moved to adopt the bill as a committee bill.
Rep. Carlson said that a specific amount of money needs to be written into the bill before
it is introduced. Rep. Killpack expressed concern that there is an opportunity for abuse. Sen.
Peterson recommended that these concerns be addressed in the legislation.
Returning to the motion, Chair Stephens called for the vote. The motion passed
unanimously. Reps. Davis, Holladay, Saunders, and Short were absent for the vote.
iii. Tax incentives for adoption. Not discussed.
b. Foster care
i. Statewide implementation of foster care citizen review boards. Chair Stephens
distributed a bill titled "Statewide Implementation of Foster Care Citizen Review Boards." Ms.
Patricia Worthington, Director of the Foster Care Citizen Review Board (FCCRB), distributed a
summary of her comments. She said that the current statute requires that the FCCRB conduct
periodic reviews of children in out-of-home care. She noted that there are 22 boards now in
operation with more than 200 citizen volunteers serving around the state. She expected that by
the end of 1997 there will be 30 boards utilizing almost 300 volunteers. She said that in the rural
areas of the state they expect to do reviews every three and nine months and along the Wasatch
Front every six months. She supported the bill because it would allow 100 percent of children in
out-of-home care in Utah to receive an independent review.
MOTION: Sen. Peterson moved to adopt the bill as a committee bill. The motion passed unanimously. Reps. Davis, Holladay, and Saunders were absent for the vote.
ii. Management Letter No. 96-27, Office of the State Auditor. Mr. Joe Christensen, Audit Manager, Office of the State Auditor, distributed copies of the DHS portion of the federal
compliance audit and discussed Management Letter No. 96-27,
the review results dealing with foster care. He expressed concern that the error rate was too high and the federal government
could, based on the DHS error rate, require that the state pay back a significantly higher amount
of federal funds than the estimate in the audit which was based on the audit sample only. He
noted that the errors are occurring in two areas: 1) payments to ineligible providers/individuals;
and 2) lack of documentation that would allow them to be eligible. Mr. Christensen said that one
of the problems with the process is that all present forms are not being filled out completely
. Ms. Arnold-Williams responded to the audit stating that the department's responses are included in
the audit report. She said that constant training continues to help increase compliance.
c. H.B. 388 (1997), Governor's Budget Requirements _ Not discussed.
4. Other Business -- The next meeting of the committee will be held on August 20, 1997 in room 405 at 9:00 a.m. Items on the agenda not discussed at this meeting will be first on the
agenda of the next meeting.
5. Adjournment_
MOTION: Sen. Tanner moved to adjourn the meeting at 11:50 a.m. Reps. Baca, Davis, Holladay, and Saunders were absent for the vote.
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